An an­cient vol­cano on T&T's South­ern an­ti­cline at Pa­lo Seco is now ac­tive, ex­pelling thick flows of mud and oil from a vent.

Un­known to many, the Anglais Point Mud Vol­cano is sit­u­at­ed on Trinidad's south coast, a few miles from Beach camp, Pa­lo Seco.

How­ev­er, even though the vol­cano has been ac­tive­ly ex­pelling thick flows from its core, ge­ol­o­gists be­lieve there is no dan­ger as the liq­uid ex­pul­sion does not mean the start of an im­pend­ing erup­tion.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view Tues­day, se­nior ge­ol­o­gist and mem­ber of the Amer­i­can As­so­ci­a­tion of Pe­tro­le­um Ge­ol­o­gists, T&T Chap­ter, Xavier Moo­nan said the re­cent flows have no bear­ing to the erup­tion of the Dev­ils Woodard mud vol­cano last year.

Moo­nan, who ex­plored the Anglais vol­cano last week said the vol­cano could at­tract thou­sands of tourists in­ter­na­tion­al­ly if mar­ket­ed prop­er­ly.

Rec­og­nized as one of many promi­nent mud vol­ca­noes sit­u­at­ed along the South­ern An­ti­cline, Moo­nan said the vol­cano is sur­round­ed by heav­i­ly fold­ed deep-wa­ter shales and sand rich tur­bidites which are mil­lions of year old.

"Not many peo­ple know about this vol­cano. The flow of liq­uid mud and oil has been go­ing on for mil­lions of years. It is a good tool that ge­ol­o­gists use to un­der­stand that there is oil be­low the ground," he ex­plained.

He said the mul­ti-coloured flow has reached the beach, flow­ing down­hill from a steep in­cline.

"Some of the oil is es­cap­ing through the mud vol­cano. It is a nat­ur­al process. It is is not a new large mud­flow. It is not like an erup­tion but a con­tin­u­a­tion of the erup­tion that oc­curred about 15 years ago," he said.

Say­ing the vol­cano should be made in­to a tourist site, Moo­nan said there were hun­dreds of vol­ca­noes across T&T which were un­known to cit­i­zens.

"This should be a tourist site. All of our mud vol­ca­noes should be on the front­line for ex­plo­ration. There should be in­for­ma­tion avail­able on each site. In our small is­land, there is an abun­dance of ge­o­log­i­cal for­ma­tions that are ex­cel­lent for study. Peo­ple will come from all over the world to study our ge­o­log­i­cal, rock for­ma­tions and vol­ca­noes," Moo­nan said.

He not­ed that there were very few places in the world with the rich ge­ol­o­gy of T&T.

"We have hun­dreds of mud vol­ca­noes. On­ly a few have been named and un­der­stood. There are lots of vol­ca­noes off­shore that oc­cur on the seabed and they af­fect drilling out there. There are plen­ty vol­ca­noes on­shore that peo­ple don't know about," he added.

Moo­nan said the on­ly vol­ca­noes with a con­i­cal vent in T&T were sit­u­at­ed at Dig­i­ty in Pe­nal.

This site has been turned in­to a tourist at­trac­tion and every week­end peo­ple use the fa­cil­i­ties.

He said the L`eau Michel vol­cano at the end of Bun­see Trace in Pe­nal has al­so been at­tract­ing hun­dreds of peo­ple.

"The Pe­nal Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion has de­vel­oped a walk­way and you can hike from the top of the beach. It is free and peo­ple have been bathing in the vol­cano which has a good deal of liq­uid mud.

They then hike down and wash off at the beach," he said.

Moo­nan said the cor­po­ra­tion should pro­vide run­ning wa­ter and toi­let fa­cil­i­ties at the vol­cano sites as well as maps and tour guides.

"It will be great if peo­ple can book tours on­line, pay with their card and come to Trinidad to see our vol­ca­noes," Moo­nan added.

He al­so said the vol­ca­noes at Marack in Moru­ga have ex­pelled great quan­ti­ties of oil de­posits so that the area around the vol­cano is re­gard­ed as Trinidad's sec­ond pitch lake.

Moo­nan said the Ge­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of T&T could de­vel­op in­for­ma­tion about each vol­canic site and of­fer it to the pub­lic. He rec­om­mend­ed that cit­i­zens take time to learn about T&T's vol­ca­noes.